


Trish Talk

by psiten



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: But Jessica/Luke is Endgame, F/M, Jessica Has a Potty Mouth, Post-Season/Series 01, Pre-Relationship, Reference to Defenders Team-Up, Reference to the Canon Existence of Claire/Luke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13071681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/pseuds/psiten
Summary: Just an ordinary morning, getting coffee with a friend before she has to go off to save the world or something.Swathed in a gray, shapeless scarf as always, her friend slumped into the cafe chair with a groan like a bridge about to break (although Jessica didn't break that easily) and flicked her sunglasses into her hair. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, and her lip was curled in a snarl. Trish couldn't think of a way she'd rather start the day."How the hell does anybody function this early in the morning?"





	Trish Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chelseagirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseagirl/gifts).



> From one pitiful Jessica/Luke shipper to another ;) Happy Yuletide!

     Only Jessica Jones could show up fifteen minutes late with Starbucks to a coffee date. It wasn't a new Starbucks cup, of course. Trish recognized the smudges on that particular cup from seeing it on Jessica's desk last week, and she'd take the Vegas odds that the cup had more whiskey in it than coffee, if it had coffee in it at all. Swathed in a gray, shapeless scarf as always, her friend slumped into the cafe chair with a groan like a bridge about to break (although Jessica didn't break that easily) and flicked her sunglasses into her hair. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, and her lip was curled in a snarl. Trish couldn't think of a way she'd rather start the day.

     "How the hell does anybody function this early in the morning?"

     "You're the one who asked me to meet, remember?" Trish said, signalling the waiter for the black coffee she'd put on hold. "Late night, I take it."

     "Yet another fuckbag cheating on his wife, yet another set of photos delivered for the use of a divorce attorney. What else is new? Oh god, coffee..."

     Which Jessica immediately mixed with a large splash of the paint stripper in the Starbucks cup.

     Trish took a sip of her own latte. She had at least half an hour before she had to leave for the station, which was about as much Jessica time as she could ever count on at a stretch, but she'd take what she could get. "So what's up? Or is this an actual social call?"

     "Can't it be both?" her friend grumbled. "Anyway, I'm attempting to be responsible. This 'Defenders' thing is meeting up to case a joint doing shady underworld crap -- you know, like, actually _check it out_ before we bust down doors and start punching people." Jessica squinted up at the ceiling with a puzzled look on her face. "You know, I honestly don't remember whose bright idea that was?"

     Probably hers, Trish _didn't_ say out loud.

     "But if I have to be up at the buttcrack of 9AM, I figured we should meet up. Because, you know... then I'd actually bother to get out of bed instead of trying to pretend this do-gooding crap isn't my life now."

     "Aww, that's sweet. I'm honored to be your alarm clock."

     "What can I say, I'm thoughtful like that."

     "Well, I'm glad you're playing nicely with your fellow heroes--"

     Jessica groaned into her half-drunk coffee and padded out the space with the rest of what she'd brought with her.

     "-- you've seemed so much happier since you got some friends in the business," said Trish.

     Gesturing to herself, from her lopsided bedhead to her mismatched shoelaces, Jessica asked, "What part of me looks happy?"

     "I said _happier_."

     "Bullshit. It's a pain in the ass. Sticking our noses into shit that isn't our business, and not even getting paid for it. Worse! We could get arrested for it!" Putting on a sarcastic smile, she added, "And you're the only friend I need, Trish."

     With a narrowed gaze even Jessica couldn't top, Trish called her bluff. "Oh, I don't know... I think you might _like_ doing an end run around the law to save innocent bystanders." From personal experience, she knew Jessica's world record for keeping her nose out of things that weren't her business was approximately thirty seconds.

     "What I _like_..." Jessica answered, shaking a finger at Trish's nose, "... is busting the heads of assholes who think nobody can get them. They make great scaredy-cat faces when they realize I can bench a truck."

     "Uh-huh."

     "And the best part is, it's not like that's even the weirdest thing happening at any given moment, so nobody makes a big deal out of it." Jessica filched a biscotti off of Trish's plate (she'd gotten two for exactly that reason) and waved it around the room after crunching off one end. "I mean, between you and me? It's a real trip being, like... the voice of reason in this group of weirdos. Me. I look halfway responsible standing next to them. So maybe I like it okay, if only because I'm not bored yet with being literally the second best adjusted, second most normal person in the room at any given time."

     Trish tried to picture it, and honestly came up with nothing except the newspaper photos of the shell of a Chinese restaurant where Jess had said they'd had their first impromptu meeting. "Wow. That's..."

     "Amazing, right?" Smirking, Jessica leaned closer, but forgot to whisper. "I mean, I may be a hot mess, but it's not like I make my fists glow, or like I'm a blind lawyer doing parkour in a kevlar devil suit."

     Trish _did_ remember to whisper, getting close enough for Jessica to bop her on the nose with the biscotti. "The Daredevil is blind?"

     "Yup." Crunch went another bite of biscotti. "Crazy, right?"

     "And a _lawyer_?"

     Jessica scowled. "... Forget I said that part."

     "Hey, trust me. I would be the last person to rat you guys out. I'm pretty sure I'd be considered an accomplice anyways. Maybe you should ask your lawyer friend for me what my legal standing is."

     "Jeri's definitely not--" Trish shot her a _look_ , and Jessica rolled her eyes. "Oh, right. 'The Devil'," she said with her air quotes and her mocking sneer. "Well, he's not my friend either, and I don't trust his judgment as far as I can throw his scrawny, armor-plated ass, so ask your own lawyer."

     "Not a bad idea, honestly. And how's Luke?"

     "Luke who?" Jessica asked, taking a gulp of her coffee with whiskey and failing to look innocent.

     "Nice try."

     "What's there to say? He's bulletproof. Obviously, despite the shit we do, he is extremely fine." Her friend facepalmed while Trish could barely keep from giggling. "Ugh, stop it! That didn't come out right. I mean yes, he's _fine_ , but he's also, you know... he's just fine. He seems physically and emotionally healthy. We don't go into lots of detail about our social lives when we're having our secret clubhouse meetings because we're a little busy talking about who we're going to put in jail this week. Happy?"

     "Oh, I'll have lots more questions later, but I have a feeling you've got to go." She nodded at the cafe door where a man who was tall, dark, and (as stated) extremely fine was scanning the crowd for Jessica.

     "What the crap is this?" her friend groaned. But the petulant slouch also disappeared, and Jessica ran her fingers through her hair to give it some kind of order. Comparatively, she looked downright perky. "Luke! I'm over here. What gives?"

     The man swung by the table, dropping a hand on Jessica's shoulder. And keeping it there, Trish couldn't help noticing. "Hey, glad I found you. Hey, Trish," he said with a nod. "Hope you don't mind if I run off with your girl here."

     "Hey, Luke. And no, Jessica told me she had somewhere she needed to be."

     " _In fifteen minutes_ ," Jessica hissed. She held up her phone, the same way she would if she were actually annoyed, and showed him the time. But instead of her eyes being narrowed to hurl daggers, she had a smirk and a hint of teasing in her voice.

     Was Jessica _flirting_? And was Luke still touching her shoulder? Wow, and looking at her like she was the best thing he'd seen all morning. Trish had thought she was the only one who felt that way at the moment. Go Jessica.

     Flirting or not, her surly friend poked Luke in the pectorals, making him grin, and was having trouble hiding that she was grinning, too. "I don't owe anybody anything until the time I agreed to be there."

     "Hey, it's not my fault I showed up early to make sure there wasn't any trouble waiting and found out I was the third person to have that idea. I mean, I tried to tell those two you weren't late yet, but I don't think patience is something either of them are good at."

     Jessica crunched the last bits of her biscotti. "So, what? You drew the short straw in the contest to see who had to go find Jessica?"

     "What now?"

     Trish wished she'd brought a stopwatch, because by the time Luke moved his hand so he could cross his arms, that shoulder touch had without a doubt crossed into 'lingering' territory, and their locked gazes had her halfway to telling them to get a room. She was pretty sure they'd forgotten she was here.

     Luke shook his head, saying, "For the record, I volunteered. I know I'm the only one who can take the punishment if you decided you weren't happy getting got."

     "Well, thank you _so_ much for the courtesy call, but I'm not done with my coffee."

     "I see that."

     Trish raised her hand to get both their attentions, "Hey, excuse me a second..." Jessica might be tough, but blushing was a completely uncontrollable reflex and she didn't get enough sun to hide it. "Luke, Jessica will be right out, I promise, but she and I had one little thing left to discuss, and it's... you know..." Switching to a whisper, she said, "... _girl talk_."

     Like a perfect gentleman, he stepped back with a nod. "Then I'll leave you to it. Jessica, I'll see you at you know where in five."

     "Fifteen!" Jessica yelled at his back as he walked away, then she took another swig of her coffee. "Thanks for the save."

     "Oh, I'm not saving you from anything." Waving her finger between Jessica and the spot where Luke had been standing, Trish asked, "What was that? I expect you to tell me if you start dating Luke again. You know that, right?"

     "Was I ever really 'dating' Luke?" The air quotes hadn't been strictly necessary this time, but Jessica had never stopped at strictly necessary. "And no, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. He's got some kind of relationship with an actual functional human person. That nurse. Did I tell you about the nurse?"

     "I remember the nurse." Like she could forget how bitter Jessica had been about that, although she tried to pretend it was nothing. But Trish thought a little harder about the way her friend and her fellow hero had been looking at each other, and... no. She really didn't think she was seeing things. " ...Two months," she declared.

     Jessica paused the process of pouring the rest of her coffee down her throat. "Two months for what?"

     "I give it two months, max, before the two of them realize they're not right for each other after all, have an amicable break-up, and suddenly Luke is spending a lot more of his personal time with you."

     The scoff from the other side of the table wasn't quite as surly as every other scoff this morning had been. "Yeah, right."

     "You're not the only one who's good at reading people, okay? We both learned that."

     Throwing five dollars on the table for the bill, she grumbled, "You need to get your eyes checked."

     "Have fun saving the world. And Jessica, do yourself a favor..."

     "When have I ever done that?" her friend asked, cocking an eyebrow.

     "Fine, then do me a favor, and don't sleep with him until after they break up. Everyone will be happier that way, including you."

     Jessica shoved the chair back under the table. "You're insane." Then, as she was halfway to the door, yelled, "And stop getting my hopes up! I live like this because disappointment fucking sucks!"

     "I call 'em like I see 'em," Trish said to no one but herself, and tucked Jessica's five into her wallet. Next time she went by Alias Investigations, she'd probably drop it under the desk or something. Money, she didn't need. Her friend being able to keep the heat on in that hole she called an office, on the other hand, she actually cared about.

     And while she was in her wallet, she made a little X on today's date in her calendar, so when she got the call from Jessica that she was finally back with Luke, she'd be able to say, "I told you so," with perfect confidence.


End file.
